Merry Christmas

Three more days until Christmas...that's just crazy. I can't believe Christmas is this week. I feel like it was just yesterday that Matt and I moved to Houston, but that was five months ago! We are driving to Pensacola tomorrow and I can't wait! We get to celebrate Christmas with all of our families, friends and dogs (Marley & Macy) - we are so excited to see them all again! We are very lucky that our families are very close to one another so we won't have to travel all day on Christmas day. We are really looking forward to spending time with all of the people that we love the most. My best friend Tara just moved back from England so I'm ecstatic about seeing her and her husband this week. I also get to see my really good friend, Laura, who lives in Tallahassee. I just love reuniting with people that I haven't seen in such a long time! We just finished our Christmas shopping yesterday - FINALLY! It was a madhouse out there...and I thought Pensacola holiday shopping was bad. We're going to see the Nutcracker at the Houston Ballet tonight and then a full day of traveling tomorrow.

We hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas!

~The Arnolds

White Christmas

Anyone who knows Matt well knows that he loves cold weather.  So when he started his job hunt last summer, he didn't start looking in the south.  Anywhere with cold weather was good for him.  However, he figured out that cold weather must not have been in God's plan when we moved to Texas.  You can only imagine our shock when it started snowing last week.  I know it wasn't a lot of snow, but it was still exciting for us because neither Matt nor I have seen snow for nearly 15 years.  Here are some photos of our fun night:

We still have a lot of Christmas shopping to do so the next few days are probably going to be pretty busy.  Also, Shane and Shane plus Bethany Dillon are playing at our church Saturday so we're stoked about seeing them.  Next week we'll be driving to Pensacola for Christmas.  We can't wait!  We're so excited to see all of our family, friends and dogs again!  

Update

These past few weeks have definitely been interesting.  First, I left my job at the oil company...it just wasn't the job for me.  I had a hard time finding a job so I got really discouraged.  Since I wasn't working, I took a trip back to Pensacola.  It was so great and refreshing to be with family and friends for a few days.  Don't get me wrong, we really like Houston, but Matt and I both were getting pretty home sick.  Soon after returning to Houston, my parents came to visit.  We had a lot of fun touring Houston and showing them our new life here.  While they were here, we got a chance to visit the Museum of Natural Science, which was really interesting.  We saw complete dinosaur fossils, rare gemstones and learned a lot about the oil industry here in Houston. 

Soon after my parents left I got offered a job at First Baptist Academy, the school located within our church.  I am working in the Admissions department in our primary school (infants through PreK).  I've been there a week so far and I love it.  I still have a lot to learn, but the people are really nice and I really enjoy the type of work I am doing.  This job is such an answered prayer. 

I'm so excited about Thanksgiving.  It's definitely one of my favorite holidays.  Matt and I are off Thursday and Friday so we'll be driving to Pensacola after work on Wednesday.  It's an eight hour drive so it will be a late night for us.  We're pumped about visiting P'cola for a long weekend! 

Our house is still for sale back home.  We've had people interested in it, but they haven't been able to get approved for a loan in these tough financial times.  Please pray that our house will sell so we can settle down and bring our furniture and dogs over here!  We miss our babies.

Below are some photos of our visit to the Museum of Natural Science and my birthday in October (Matt got me a delicious chocolate raspberry cake).

New Design

As you may have noticed, my blog has a new look.  I would like to give all of the credit to my hubby, Matt, who created the new banner for me.  His designs just blow me away sometimes; he's just so talented!  If you're ever interested in seeing some of his other designs, his website is listed on the right side of my blog.  I'll be posting another update very soon.

Ike Photos

Here are some pictures of the damage that Hurricane Ike caused around our area. While this area was definitely not hit as bad as Galveston, it definitely shows why our power was out for weeks!

A lot of the roads flooded like this. I was surprised that some cars would drive through it.

Another familiar site: downed powerlines from uprooted trees falling.

Houston's First Baptist Church (HFBC)

Here is a photo of the Oasis at HFBC. The Oasis is a court yard in the middle of the church that had uprooted trees from the storm.

After the Storm

FEMA trucks, downed power lines, uprooted trees...Hurricane Ike is bringing back so many memories of Hurricane Ivan that hit Pensacola in 2004. Houstonians thought this storm would curve and miss them like most storms do - boy were they surprised. We were actually very lucky that the storm hit as at Category 2 instead of the 4 that the meteorologists were predicting. The night the hurricane hit Matt and I stayed at the church. There were other families of staff there as well. It was actually pretty fun. We watched Princess Bride in the sanctuary before the electricity went off. I slept through the worst of the storm on the couch in Matt's office. The church suffered just minor damage: a few leaks throughout the church and an uprooted tree in the courtyard.

Phil and Vicky's house (where Matt and I are staying) wasn't touched. One side of their fence was knocked down and their mailbox broke, but that's it. A few days after the storm, Matt and I went to College Station with friends from Sunday School, Michael and Laura Simpson. We stayed with Michael's sister and her family. They had electricity - woohoo! It was so nice of them to let us stay with them. They were such a great family! College Station is home to Texas A & M so we all took a visit touring the campus. While we were there we went to the George Bush Library (George Bush Senior). It was amazing to see all that he's done and accomplished in his life! Since we were Houston "evacuees" we got in free. Gotta love that!

We still don't have electricity, unfortunately, but hopefully we will soon! Michael and Laura got electricity last week so they've been kind enough to let us stay with them. As soon as I get my cable to my camera I will upload some pictures of the area after the storm. Hopefully next time I update we will have restored electricity and be somewhat back to normal. Well, it may take a while to get back to normal.

New Job!!

I went on an interview yesterday for the admin position I mentioned in the last blog and got offered the job! Finally! It'll be so nice to have something to do everyday, however, I will miss sleeping late during the week. My title will be Risk Control Admin for EPCO, Inc. which is an oil company downtown and my first day is Tuesday. I think it will be awesome working downtown. I just need to figure out how I will get there (i.e. drive and park in the parking garage which is expensive, park & ride, or take the bus - which I hear isn't that bad). What's awesome is that I already know somebody that works there through our Sunday school class so he's been helping me out. Another perk is that I get off at 12:30 on Fridays. How amazing is that? Matt and I are so thankful that I got a job and that it's at a good company. It's definitely an answered prayer.